Swedish lawmaker acquitted of assault after night out

COPENHAGEN – A Swedish appeals court has acquitted a member of Sweden’s Parliament after an altercation with a man outside a nightclub in Stockholm last year.

Friday’s decision noted that the prosecution had failed to prove that Kent Ekeroth, who belongs to the anti-immigration and Euroskeptic Sweden Democrats, didn’t act in self-defence.

In June, a court sentenced Ekeroth for hitting a man in the face outside the Solidaritet club on Nov. 24, 2016. Shortly after, Ekeroth voluntarily took time off from parliament where the Democrats, Sweden’s third largest party, hold 49 of 349 seats.

Party spokesman Mattias Karlsson said that he welcomed the ruling, but that Ekeroth’s behaviour in recent years “has been harmed by several incidents.”